PS recommendations?

[joea64]

Given all the foofooraw I've gone through over the past month since I put in my new video card and then my new Athlon, I think I'd better start looking real hard for a new power supply. The 300W A1 I have currently seems to be handling things all right, now that I _finally_ seem to have gotten all the VIA and nVidia drivers sorted out, but I'm concerned that it might be operating at close to maximum capacity, with an Athlon T-Bird 1.4Ghz, a GeForce 4 MX440, two late-model HD's, a 16X DVD, a 16/12/40 CD-RW, a video capture card, and a modem to deal with, not to mention a chassis fan and a system blower fan. I do know that the case area around the power supply is feeling very warm if not outright hot, and a lot of hot air is being pumped out of the back of the box.

I'm also on a budget, though I'm trying to raise more money by selling various stuff on eBay (and having some success so far). From what everyone says, Antec seems to be the way to go. What I would _really_ like to have is that snazzy gold-plated 430W (the one with the gold-plated _connections_, that is), but it costs $100 or more. The TruePower 350W, which is available at Best Buy for $60, seems like a better deal. Would that be adequate to handle my system?

-Joe-

[ranchdog]

Joe...

I get along with this unit real well.

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=LP-6100E


RD.

[joea64]

Originally posted by ranchdog
Joe...

I get along with this unit real well.

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=LP-6100E


RD.

Good price, and I'll think about it. I've never had occasion yet to buy anything from Computer Geeks even though I've been familiar with the excellent prices on it for over a year, since I was recommended to it by a friend who used to be the chief computer tech where I work. Maybe this will be the occasion, as soon as I can scrape together $47 plus shipping.

In the meantime, I had to take out the 300W just now. I had yet another black-screen crash, and after rebooting (I opened up the case to swap around a couple of cards just in case anything was shorting or not properly seated), I checked and found that the PS fan didn't seem to be blowing air out. :eek So I powered down again, took out that PS, and put back in the 350W PS that had originally came with the case. I had pulled it because I thought it was responsible for some severe instability problems that I'd been having several weeks ago - problems that were, in fact, more than likely caused by bad VIA/NVidia driver installation - and also because it came from L&C, a company with not the best reputation, but under the circumstances, it was the only other ATX power supply I had to hand and it _does_ generate more power. So I'll be using it until I can get a decent PS like that one from Computer Geeks. (That it has dual fans is a definite plus; I may even try to add another chassis fan if I can find room in the front, or maybe use those newfangled HD fans because my hard drives need cooling too.)

-Joe-

[diurnal]

Go to www.newegg.com I would either get a Antec or Enermax, If you are a gamer or poweruser, then those 2 Powersupplies are the only choices.

[iisbob]

Since i had an Enermax blow a capacitor i stay far away from them!!:eek:

I bought an Antec truepower ( 400w ) to replace it and i've never been happier, matter of fact i replaced all my systems power supplies with an Antec.

I'd recommend going with Antec. ;)

[joea64]

Originally posted by iisbob
Since i had an Enermax blow a capacitor i stay far away from them!!:eek:

I bought an Antec truepower ( 400w ) to replace it and i've never been happier, matter of fact i replaced all my systems power supplies with an Antec.

I'd recommend going with Antec. ;)

I'll look into that. In the meantime, the power supply might not be the sole root of all my problems this past month; I had TWO video-blackout system freezes last evening, and I got so disgusted, as I relate in the Multimedia board, that I finally pulled my almost-brand-new GeForce 4 MX440 and put my trusty old TNT2 Riva M64 back in. I suppose next I'll have to ask for more recommendations on a different video card. All the same, I'll see about the Antec as soon as I know how much money I'm getting from my proceeds on eBay...I think I'm almost up to the price of a 350W Antec already as it is.

-Joe-

[joea64]

Originally posted by iisbob
Since i had an Enermax blow a capacitor i stay far away from them!!:eek:

I bought an Antec truepower ( 400w ) to replace it and i've never been happier, matter of fact i replaced all my systems power supplies with an Antec.

I'd recommend going with Antec. ;)

iisbob will be happy to know that I've taken the Antec path. :) In fact, I got a fantastic deal today on an Antec TruePower 430W PS - yep, the snazzy job with the gold-plated connectors and dual fans - at Micro Center. They were having one of their huge sales on "yellow-ticket" and "orange-ticket" clearance items, and I stumbled on a brand-new (literally; the PS was still sealed in its original packaging) Antec 430W. The list price for that model is $100, but by the time all the discounts were deducted, I had gotten almost 1/3 of the price shaved off. :D That's about what I'd have paid for a non-discounted Antec 350W, so you can imagine I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself right about now. ;) Naturally, I popped it into the case as soon as I got home, so now I'm running with a total of six fans in the system (two PS fans, the rear-chassis fan, the turbine blower fan, the CPU and GPU fans) and 430W of power supplied by the industry leader - at a bargain price too, withal.

Now if I can only get as good a result tomorrow when I try to trade in that GeForce 4...

-Joe-

[joea64]

The vendor proved very accommodating when I took the GeForce back in, and I traded it in for an ATI Radeon 7200 and got some cash back, which I'm going to blow on a nice lunch as soon as I finish this. ;)

More relevantly, though, I got yet another fan for my system: this one is a JustCooler (marketed under the Hewlett-Packard logo) dual-fan turbo system cooler which fits into an available 5.25" expansion slot; I had to move the CD-RW drive to get unobstructed airflow. Seems to be working well so far, though, and MBM reports rock-steady temperatures on system board, CPU and power supply exhaust. I also replaced my floppy drive while I was at it, so I'm now the proud owner of a completely rebuilt system. :D

-Joe-